Friday, November 26, 2010

Collaboration In Daily Fantasy Sports

When I started playing daily fantasy 4 years ago, it was every man for himself. Heck, you couldn't even get good player information online. There wasn't preemptive player news that could help your roster.

Now, that information is prevalent (and in some cases, redundant). But there's another development in the flow of information - collaboration between fantasy players.

It's no secret that daily players share lineups with their trusted brethren within the community.

My favorite early example of this is tuffled1 & ucla2 sharing/using identical lineups on Fan Duel. Now, this was back when everyone was matched up randomly, much like private entries work today.

This is basically an angle shoot. Since identical roster contests get their full entry fees refunded, this was a way for these two players to hog the contest pool. By bombing the pool with entries, the algorithm used would give them the most match ups. They never had to worry about playing each other (and losing rake).

This also suggests to me why they never played auto pick - because they would be forced to face each other with unique rosters.

In the current daily climate, it's gone even further. I have had players solicit me to share my roster for a fee (usually a percentage of their winnings). Players have also set up cliques - through chat, PM, IM, bulletin boards and message boards - in which they share roster & player info.

Heads up players have now become TEAMS of heads up players. Although it's not hard to figure out who is working together, it does affect game selection a little bit.

I don't really avoid anybody in the contests I play, so I hope the collaboration doesn't grow to where I am taking on 50 identical rosters.

Hopefully the proliferation of large field contests will stem the tide of this angle shoot.